Fragments of the inexpressible uncertain
by Shiivivi
Summary: The pressure of becoming a hero in your early teenager years alone is already something major. When it piles up with the angst of realizing your own sexuality, it all turns into a hurricane of feelings. Drama, Kirishima x Bakugo.
1. Chapter 1

**This is my first story in a long, looong time, and for me, it's also a writing exercise. Please keep that in mind, ok?**

Though Kirishima Ejiro's quirk was hardening, he sure as hell was soft. Growing up and overcoming his insecurities about his powers and emotions wasn't easy, but he seemed to manage it just fine beside the occasional ups and downs. He was a teenager, after all, and entitled to question everything that he thought he knew about himself and who he wanted to be, right? Except for one thing. One little thing, crawling through his thick skin, itching.

 _-His touch. The crescent warmth between our fingers.-_

Growing, spreading into his veins like poison, the slow realization was unbearable. And, like poison, it was slowly killing him. This kind of thought wasn't manly, nor these sensations traveling every nerve he had. Kirishima felt something emerging, as the cold shower water drip onto his naked skin.

 _-Oh, no. Oh. NO. OH NOONONONO. For God's sake you're in the locker room, GET DOWN.-_

"Yo, Kirishima, I-"As if a lightning had stroked him, the red-haired boy activated his quirk full-force, happily for him, turning down the action on the lower part of his body.

"Geez Kaminari! My heart came to my throat, bro!"

"Sorry, sorry! Didn't meant to startle you, I was only going to ask you if you have some deodorant I can borrow…"

"Sure thing, man! Hold on a sec."

The boy turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist, afraid that any of these thoughts could run into his mind again if he continued further. Kaminari didn't seemed to notice his issue in the bath, and he thanked all the gods for it. It would be incredibly embarrassing even try to explain his body behavior lately. They talked about random stuff in the way to his locker, and once there, the strange atmosphere of paranoia around him disappeared completely. He fetched the tiny can and a change of fresh clean clothes, relieved that none of these tingling sensations seemed to appear near Kaminari. Maybe he wasn't like that after all. Maybe he was only overthinking everything because all the trauma of the recent events. That was certainly it.

"Hey man, today in the shower…" Kaminari started, a little embarrassed.

"What?!" Kirishima jumped out of his train of thought almost instantly. _Oh no. He definitely saw it. DAMN._

" I'm sorry that I startled you… again. And… I'm worried about you, man. When I called you your quirk was on almost instantly? Do you want, you know, to talk about it or anything?"

 _-Oh, that. Yeah, that was unexpected even for me.-_

"I don't know bro, I think my body just reacted… With all these villains surprise attacks and stuff, I think one's reaction can jump a little faster, you know?" His forte was not lying, he thought to himself.

"I know, that's why I wanted to talk about it, actually."

Silence fell hard between them. Ejiro could feel his blood stop, knowing that their chat wasn't going anywhere comfortable.

"What do you mean?" Right now, he wasn't able to measure how sensitive Kaminari was about things. He actually believed he was doing a great job pretending everything was okay, smiling and being energetic as always. But maybe he wasn't that great, maybe he wasn't good at keeping his secrets at all.

"Since that day at the hero camp… You've changed. You're blaming yourself after what happened with Bakugo, right?" His friend asked, serious frown on his face, eyes attached to his.

 _-So he noticed. I wonder if someone else did it too.-_

"I'm not…" He could not proceed, for Denki knew him better.

"Don't lie to me, bro. That day... It haunts me too, you know? I'm scared too."

 _Scared? So is that's what he was cautious about? Well, it does make sense._

Kaminari was facing the floor, his voice trembling.

"I don't think any of us could do better at the time, since even the pros had a hard time defeating them there was nothing we could..."

"It's not like that." Kirishima cut him off, almost icy. _Can I tell him?_ He carefully analyzed his colleague disappointed face. _I don't think so._ "I'm just dealing with some other stuff right now."

With a gentle expression, the blonde hero tried to convince him a last time.

"You know I'm here if you want to talk… right?"

"Yeah bro, thanks." Kirishima smiled widely, trying to wipe away any trace of concern of his face.

 _-If only it was that simple.-_


	2. Chapter 2

Kaminari vanished defeated by him, and as soon as his friend left the locker room, Kirishima dressed and let himself melt into a puddle of feelings he was unable to explain. Stirring inside him, this harrowing bittersweet sensation was choking him. It was nothing like any crush he had ever experienced, for it was not pleasant in the first place. Damn, it was like the opposite. The only traces of it that he liked were wiped by the guilt of feeling them in the first place. He leaned against the wall, hiding his face behind his arms.

 _-THAT ITS NOT MANLY AT ALL, SHIT. TAKING ADVANTAGE OF YOUR FRIEND'S CONFIDENCE IS NOT GOOD AS WELL. I'M A COWARD, THAT'S WHAT I AM.-_

The room trembled with the first blow on the wall. Again, his quirk activated without him noticing. Under his right hand, a massive hole appeared. - _Great.-_

"Geez, shitty head, did you really got this pissed off by today's training result?" Bakugo entered the room with a light concern in his face.

 _-Perfect.-_

"Hey man. Yeah, something like that." Kirishima said, with glooming eyes. Like he could simply walk out of ruining a school wall without karma fucking him in the ass.

Bakugo lifted a brow, intrigued by his response. That was not like his colleague at all.

"

You're not like this." He limited himself to say.

 _-I don't know who I am anymore, dude. And that's all because of you.-  
_

"Maybe you don't know me very well, then." Kirishima said before slamming the door behind him _._

- _The fuck? What the hell is wrong with him today, damn it?!-_

Bakugo thought, grabbing his clothes.

Kirishima walked as fast as he could, sure that every second beside Bakugo would be a ruin to his mental health at that moment. Quick as wind, he crossed the corridors to the dorms, and went up the stairs like crazy. Finally, in the sanctity of his room, he sank into his bed, feeling every inch of him finally relax.

 _-You're not like this.-_

Sure thing he wasn't like that, destroying things and running away.

 _-So, why?-_

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He remembered the day of Bakugo's rescue, when the two crossed the heavens. The vivid figure of his blood-red eyes made him feel uneasy. And his hands, warmed by the heat of the blond's blast... he had never felt so happy. So why could not he be content with that innocent moment? His heart was pounding with every flashback of it, and yet something dark inside him wanted more. He dove his head into the pillow, promising to bury all those lewd thoughts deep inside him at all costs.

But there is no desire so well hidden that our dreams do not reach.

 _There he was again, in the shower. This time, neither Kaminari nor the others seemed to be around, just him and the cold water drops dancing through his body. Perhaps all that embarrassing nightmare had been only his imagination playing tricks on him._ _He rinsed his hair, feeling free of the strings of that hideous sensation, feeling every bit of his body flooded with relaxation. The memory of Bakugo's scent ran through his nose, first as a gentle breeze, and then, as if in the blink of an eye, imperative as air to someone on the brink of suffocation. He inhaled without choice the fragrance his mind had so much tried to ignore during the last few days, sign of the presence of the one he had been trying so hard to avoid. As soon as he did, he felt trembling with desire._

 _"Bakugo," he thought._

 _"Yes?" A icy chill ran down his spine, driving him crazy in anticipation. The low voice to his ear came closer, making him feel not only his breath but also the warmth of presence close to his. The proximity made him remember tortuously the warmth of the boy's hands, and how he wanted them in his body._

"Touch me" He begged.

 _And as a child who amuses himself with a new toy, the blonde spread his hands over Kirishima's chest, the heat increasing gradually as he savored every word of his taunts._

"Like this?"

 _"More."_

 _"Where?" The boy asked into his ear, almost like a hiss._

 _"You know." Kirishima could hear himself, almost crying for it, melting in the warmth of the boy's hands._

 _"I want to hear you say it."_

 _"God, I beg you, please ..."_

 _The scarlet-haired boy could hear the low, amused laugh behind him, and when they turned into warm kisses all over his neck. A wave of different sensations crossed his body, breaking into a trance he had never felt before. As the young man leaned his body against his, his left hand remained flat on his chest, while his right fingers traced the paths of his waist, perilously wandering around his crotch._

 _"God, I want you." Kirishima felt himself moan as the warm tips of the blonde's fingers approached his member._

" _Yeah, I know._ "


	3. Chapter 3

Ejiro woke up dripping in sweat, cold as an iceberg. It took more than a bit for him to be able to wake up from the numbing sensation, but when he did, he noticed. _AGAIN_. The volume that alarmed him earlier grew bigger, if that was somehow possible. He hid his face under his hands, mortified with the hole situation. The fresh memory of the last words of his dream hammered his head hard as a punch.

 _"I know."_

And it was time for him to admit that he knew too. No matter when or how it had begun, the redhead knew he had never felt anything like it with anyone else. He scrutinized all the interactions he had had with other boys over the years but none of them had made his body react that way. He'd been attracted to girls before, found them pretty and sweet, but nothing _like that_. He felt somehow dirty. But more importantly, he felt confused. Was he gay or? Well maybe bisexual...ish? He never considered to do to any girl the thins that his mind fantasized about Bakugo. It was doubtful to him if he was behaving that way because it was his first experience in that regard, or whether it was in fact a preference he had always had. No, definitely if he could call it something, he would not choose the word preference. It had never been an option for Kirishima to feel that way about a colleague so close, and especially for another guy. He had always been a person who did not care about this sort of thing with others, as long as people were happy with their own lives. But somehow he felt bad about admitting to himself his feelings toward his friend. Perhaps it was because he felt himself abusing his best friend's trust. The thoughts that crossed his mind when they were near, the sensations that filled him, all seemed so wrong. Bakugo became close to him, and had trusted him that day. Since then he had opened up more often, letting go of his usual anger, hanging around with him. Ejiro could even sworn he'd seen him smile, even if only a little, in a conversation in the school cafeteria. He had always been the most honest person **_ever_** to himself and to others, but at that moment losing his friendship was out of the question. There had to be another way of dealing with the situation. He lay facing the ceiling, his brain filled with ideas of how to do it. Gradually, the gentle murmur of morpheus put him into a sound sleep.

He woke up with the beep of the alarm clock on his cell phone, his hands fumbling for the snooze button, unsuccessfully. He blinked his eyes in a mixture of tiredness and headache. Suddenly he remembered last night and let out a long sigh. He wished it had been just a dream. But whatever, today the redhead would do his best and let it go! Something did not seem right, but the idea of ruining everything he had cultivated with the blonde seemed even worse. He should be strong enough to fight it, and fortunately for him, during his meditation about it, Kirishima discovered that his quirk allowed him to disperse the most dramatic effects of the scarlet-eyed boy's presence upon him. That alone was a great relief. He walked to the bathroom and splashed some water on his face. He stared at her reflection, dissatisfied. Was he thinner? He shook off that idea from his head, and went into the shower, letting the first drops of cold water go down until the bath was warm and gentle to his newly awakened self. He tested the temperature, first with the back of his hand, and then with his feet. He let all the water soak his body from head to toe. He enjoyed the first shower in the last few days with no memories or weird sensations haunting him.

Okay, I'll give it my all today!

The redhead left the shower after cleaning himself completely, feeling tons lighter. He smiled his usual big smile, and dried himself as he hummed. He dried and shaped his hair in the manner of his idol, the red riot, and brush his teeth furiously. While putting on his clothes and shoes, he felt more and more at ease with himself. Today was going to be a great day. Until he crossed the door and heard a familiar voice from the room next to his.

"Hey, what was that yesterday?" Kirishima heard Bakugo's calm but slightly irritated voice.

"I was just in a bad mood, man." He answered evasively.

"I fucking noticed. Should I be worried?" His friend said, in a more outspoken way than Ejiro could expect. The redhead scratched the back of his neck, smiling.

"You care about me now! How cute, bro!"

"FUCK YOU, FORGET ABOUT IT, FALL DEAD, I DO NOT CARE." The bomb boy screamed, rushing past him without looking back.

"Hey, hey, I was joking! It's cool of you to worry about me, it's just that you're not the only one with things that you do not want to talk about, dude. If I feel I need help with it, I'll tell you, I promise" Kirishima felt bad about lying to his best friend, but he seemed obstinate.  
"Tsc. Whatever." The blonde said, in his grumpy way. He stopped, still without looking back, and imperatively barked "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, bro! I'm right behind you!" And the redhead walked toward him, happily. Somehow, admitting to himself how he felt made it all easier between them. He did not knew how long it would last, but at least at that moment, everything seemed normal.

The gentle breeze blew as they crossed the path toward the classroom. Kirishima chattered about amenities, which seemed uninteresting to the blond, but even through his disregard the boy kept talking until they crossed paths with other classmates.

"Hey, Kaminari! Guess what! Ashido told me the other day that some girls noticed their panties were missing! Do you think it's Mineta's work? Bakugo here seems to think they've probably lost somewhere, but where do you lose that sort of thing, you know

"They probably forgot them it in the dryer or something, you know? Ha ha..." Kaminari said, suspiciously looking sideways.

"Wait. You have nothing to do with it, do you? That's not manly, bro. Not cool." The redhead said raising a brow.

" _Shhhhhhh. Please turn it down, if Jiro catches me I'm dead, ma-"_ he didn't had much time to complete the sentence, though. Jiro's plugs penetrated his ears mercilessly.

 _"I KNEW you guys had something to do with it! Honestly, man, will you ever grow up?"_

 _"Jiro-chan ... that's not what you're thinking!" The electric boy whined._

 _"Don't even try!"_ the girl said, lifting him by the ears and taking him with her while the boy shed thick tears predicting his cruel fate.

"..." _Dude, she's scary._ Kirishima thought to himself.

"Hmph, noisy bastards." Said Bakugo, resuming his walk. He stared at them thinking how it was possible for other people to interact so naturally.

 _-It doesn't matter. I have him.-_

The blonde thought, looking at his friend talking non-stop beside him. It didn't matter that he couldn't relax around other people, Bakugo was able to do so with the hardened boy, and he silently admitted to himself that he liked it.


	4. Chapter 4

The rest of the day went normal, except for the incident with Kaminari, and a **_little chat_** between Mineta and the rest of the girls during lunchtime.

 _Damn, girls are scary. Maybe I AM gay after all._ The redhead thought with himself.

"Fucking pervert" A familiar voice said near him.

Kirishima felt the blood leave completely his body as he froze in ground. Was he thinking out loud? God almighty.

"Wha-what?" He asked almost crying

"That grape fucker, shitty head. Where is your head at? - He paused. - Hey. You look like shit. Go see the nurse or something." The blonde asked looking visibly concerned to his white as paper friend.

"Sure, sure. It must be the flu? I guess..." The redhead said looking away as he tried to disguise his burning cheeks.

"WELL GO SEE THE FUCKING NURSE THEN, I DON'T WANNA CATCH WHATEVER YOU HAVE YOU FUCKER" A screaming Bakugo woke him up from his thoughts about becoming a ostrich.

"Right, right... hahaha... you're right, I'm going to recovery girl!" The redhead said scratching the back of his head and clumsily stumbling on his feet as he withdrew.

The boy went to the infirmary in silence, to the point where no living soul could be seen and sighed heavily.

"I HAVE to stop the gay shit, man. Bakugo's not stupid!" He blew out to the emptiness of the corridor.

"You and the bomb kid huh? I'm not exactly surprised, but, well, I'm surprised."

It wasn't so empty as he thought.

 _OH NO. MAN NO. GOD, SERIOUSLY?_

A purple-haired heroine emerged behind the door of the infirmary, as he felt his world collapse. Now he truly had a motive to see recovery girl.

"No, no, you heard everything wrong! Hahahaha I was telling myself that I should stop feeling so sick all the time and ..." He tried to give her a proper answer, but it was clear as the sun, and she wasn't blind **_or deaf_**. It was Jiro, after all, and there was no possibility in the world that she had heard wrong. Not with ears like hers.

"Dude, chill. It's written all over your face. I'm not going to tell anyone, so you don't have to pretend. And **_seriously_** , it's okay, its not like we could choose who we like." She said as she blushed a little.

"It's not like that... Its just... oh man... I don't even know right? Anyway, it's not something mutual, so please don't tell anyone about it? Until yesterday I couldn't even admit it to **_myself._** Man… can we at least talk about it somewhere empty? I've had my share of people overhearing today. ''

"Sorry dude, it's not like I did it on purpose," She said, pointing to her ears. "but you really seem to be in need of a friend's ear"

He laughed. Well, at least she had a sense of humor.

"Thanks." He said, staring at the floor. _Maybe that is true._

"Sure, man, let's go to the common room, I'm pretty sure it's empty now." Jiro said, placing a hand on his shoulder gently.

The two walked together, and once there, they sat side by side on the couch. He began to vent, sparing the sordid details, since he still didn't felt comfortable talking about it to anyone, especially to a girl. She seemed to pay attention to every detail, and let him speak until there was nothing more to be said. He then took a deep breath, and asked:

"Earlier, you said that I couldn't choose who I like, right? So... are you too..."

"No, not exactly. I mean, yes, but not for another girl, I just happen to like an extremely stupid pervert." She said, face as red as a tomato.

"WHOHOHOA, NO WAY! SO YOU AND KAMINARI ..."

"Shh, man! I told you, it's not like I could choose! It like… I don't know, as if our quirks reverberate together. I think he feels it too, but I'm not sure.

"Now that's a lame excuse!" He laughed, amused by her words.

"I'm serious! It has grown since the day that we connected first time against villains. Since then, I've been feeling more and more attracted towards this asshole. Don't you feel it about blast boy too? As if your quirks had approached you? Think about it, ok? If you couldn't handle his blows, maybe you could never be so close to him. And maybe that's why it feels so safe to him to be around you too. You can handle him."

He paused to think for a moment, but then another doubt arose in his mind.

"So how do I know if I can possibly feel this way about someone else?" I mean, it's a gay thing or just the chemistry of our quirks pulling in? You said you think Kaminari feels that way too, but I have zero signals that Bakugo feels the same way, even remotely. I don't even know if I like girls anymore, geez."

"Well, that's a good question, dude. I don't think I can answer this to you, but... wait! - A great idea seemed to have crossed her mind. She approached the boy abruptly, almost touching his face with hers. After three seconds staring into his scarlet eyes, looking for any reaction, she tilter her head to the side, curious.

"Is there something in my face?" He asked confused.

 _Yep. There's_ ** _no_** _doubt._

"You're definitely gay for him." She whispered.

"ARE YOU GOING TO KISS OR WHAT?" A voice echoed through the room. The duo jumped away, scared by the sudden scream. Behind them, a pink silhouette came in, sneaky as a shadow. Mina Ashido, smiling from ear to ear.

"A-ashido-san! " A timid Ochako tried to stop her by distance, but Pinky didn't gave up even a little, and approached them instead.

As she stared at them questioning with her eyes, the ear-jack girl became uneasy and decided to say something.

"There was something in his face."

"Really? And where is it, Jiro-chan?" The pink girl asked with a naughty smile.

"I blew out." The purple haired girl said, peacefully.

"Ara, ara, Jiro-chan! I always thought you preferred Denki-kun! Could it be that after today you were disappointed and decided for a change of scenery?"

 _Damn._

They thought together :

 _She hit right in the soft spot!_

Both were about to come up with different answers when a new figure entered the room.

"Shitty head, shouldn't you be in the infirmary or something? What are you doing here?

"I went to the recovery girl and she healed me on the spot!" The redhead said scratching his head.

"I was there to make sure that Kaminari wasn't going to die or anything, and this guy and I ran into each other. Recovery girl released him and we decided to train instead of getting bored until our class ends." Jiro decided to continue so both Bakugo and Mina looked satisfied.

"So at the end of the day you were with Denki-kun!" Mina said, maliciously.

"I had to be, if that bastard loses his hearing or something like that I'd be banned from UA." Jiro sighed, genuinely disturbed. She quickly wondered if it was better to let Mina think she kept a secret romance with Kirishima. It would be less embarrassing at least.

"Is that so?" Bakugo seemed skeptical. He looked seriously at his roommate, hoping he would give him some sign that he would tell more about it later, but his friend looked away.

"Yep. That's what happened." Ejiro smiled as innocently as he could, staring at the wall behind the blonde. He could sense his friend's blood boil at the blatant lie, but he forced himself to ignore it until he left the room in silence. He was definitely fucked. But then the rest of his classmates appeared noisily, and the redhead allowed himself to relax and have a common conversation among teenagers. He would deal with the consequences of that later. Distracted by the group's laughter and conversation, he failed to notice when his cell phone rang with the sound of a new incoming message.

\- You two don't match.

 _K-_


	5. Chapter 5

Bright lights blinded him, in a first opening of eyes. As his pupils grew familiar to it, he searched lazily in his mind to remember where he was. Then the memories came, all at once, like a flashback. He was at the infirmary. Kaminari lifted his head quickly from the pillow. Was she there too? He searched for purple hair but spotted only a gray bun.

"You woke up, huh?" A curious recovery girl turned her chair toward him, calmly.

"How long have I been asleep?" The boy asked, feeling still a little numb.

"The whole afternoon, kid. Your bruises were shallow, but I would not advise you to tease her again, she didn't look happy at all when she brought you in. What did you two fought about?" She seemed much more interested in the teenage drama than in his current state of health.

"Nothing," he whispered, pressing the sheet over him between his fingers. " Did she left a long time ago?"

Slightly decected for not being able to get more details, the elderly heroine told him that she had left them alone to go to the bathroom soon after he was healed, but when she returned, only the boy was there.

"Oh, right." He frowned, sure that she should be much angrier than he had imagined, for she left the infirmary as soon as she had the chance.

He stared at the cold room, unwilling to stand up even though he knew he should, since he was perfectly well.

"Hey, is it okay if I sleep around here tonight?" The words came out of the boy's mouth before he could think it over.

"Is it that bad?" Recovery girl asked intrigued.

"No, I just feel a little dizzy. Is it okay if I stay here tonight? It's not against the rules or something?" He said weakly without being able to face her.

"Well," she said slowly, "I can't keep you here perfectly well during your class time, but since you said you're feeling dizzy, and considering that your classes don't return until tomorrow, I don't think it's a problem." She smiled gently, comforting him.

The embarrassment of the incident had weighed on his mind. He thought at least she would be there to scold him, but he was wrong. He wasn't surprised, after all. The truth was that he had only heard Mineta's shadowy plans, which had convinced him of the possibility of "knowing more about the girls". It was not a smart choice, considering how it shook his relationship with one of his closest friends. More than that, Jiro was _special._ He clenched his fists. He had to apologize to her no matter what.

A buzz brought him to reality. Was it his phone? He grabbed the device, hoping it has news from Jiro, but found a weird message from Mineta instead.

 _Man, you'll FLIP when you read this. Kirishima is totally hanging out with your girl, man. They disappeared all day and Mina found them all on top of each other at the couch in the common room. He said he was sick and came to see the recovery girl after you left, but I think he went after Kyoka-san to stab you right in the back, dude. I'll pay attention and if I find out anything else I'll tell you, k?_

 _What the fuck?_ Kaminari was shocked. Where did THAT come from?

Weeks earlier, he had opened up with Mineta about his "connection" with Jiro, or what he could describe as the closest to it. The grape boy immediately seemed interested, asking him what had attracted him to her, considering that her body was absolutely normal, and most of her clothes were not very feminine or revealing.

 _"_ _It's not a crush or something, I'm serious! It's something magnetic, but it's not like the cliches. It's about our quirks." Kaminari said to Mineta, dead serious._

 _"_ _HAHAHAHAHA YOU'RE KILLING ME MAN! DID YOU HEAR ANGELS SINGING WHEN SHE WALKS INTO YOU TOO?" Mineta asked, almost to tears of laughter._

 _"_ _NO DUDE, IT'S LIKE… PHYSICS, IT'S SIMPLY LIKE THAT. ATTRACTION, REPULSION, UNDERSTAND? LITERALLY." he snarled, losing his temper. "When I say that I am attracted to her, I mean in the literal sense. As if our powers interact with each other."_

 _"_ _Whatever, man, if you feel like it, the only thing you CAN'T DO is tell her about it. Girls likes it hard, trust me."_

And, well, Kirishima was the **hardest** , right? Ok, now that was a bad pun. But he couldn't stop thinking about it. He always blabbed about manly stuff, honor and things as such. The redhead were brave and a good friend, and Denki had never saw him pranking on someone or compromising with Mineta and his dirty ideas. On top of it, he was buff and everything. Come to think of it, if Kaminari were a girl, probably that kind of guy would attract him too. As he speculated on the subject, sleep stolen the thought, and the blonde blacked out in the infirmary bed until the next morning.


	6. Chapter 6

While some slept, others were very awake in their rooms, also thinking about weird text messages.

Who had written that? Ejiro rolled over in his bed once more. The cell number was unknown. Kaminari maybe? Kyoka-san had said he thought Kaminari felt the same, so maybe it was a message of jealousy. Maybe it was her, about the Bakugo thing, but it didn't make sense since she was talking to everyone by the time the message was delivered. Maybe Koda-kun were trying to give him a heads up? Who else in the class besides them had K initials? He made an effort but he was never good at keeping names. It was a bad time to have a new cell phone. After he crushed the old one sitting on it with his quirk activated, his parents had been kind enough to send him a new one, but at that moment he cursed the device. He stared at the display as if staring at it, he could decrypt the number in a name that could fill the space in the contact bar. Every day a different surprise. He looked through the blind and saw the first rays of sunlight springing up. It was going to be a long day. He then decided to take advantage of the empty bath and laundry and slipped out of bed, conforming himself with the sleep he wouldn't have.

He picked up his things and marched into the common area, being careful to make as little noise as possible. Once assured that he had **not** woken anyone on the way to the first floor, he relaxed and walked in his normal pace to the laundry room. The redhead shoved his laundry into the washing machine and pressed the start button. Ejiro thought he heard noise coming from the bathroom, but it was still early, and every room had his toilette so he ignored and walked with a change of clothes into the bath, and to his surprise, he was not alone. Distracted by his thoughts, a ghostly Kaminari was trying to fix his hair, unsuccessfully.

"G'day bro! Are you better?" Ejiro said cheerfully, trying to be polite.

Without waiting to meet anyone so soon, Kaminari felt his heart come to his mouth with the sudden words. Then he saw his friend through the mirror and calmed down.

"Geez Kirishima if you were trying to give me the change for the scare the other day I SWEAR it was super effective!" He released, letting out a sigh of relief.

"Haha, sorry, sorry. It was truly unintentional." The redhead apologized, embarrassed. He thought about approaching his friend about the text message, but it didn't seem like the best time for it. He felt the other party's embarrassment in the air, and wondered if the blond really had not noticed anything **_strange_** that day before.

"It's okay." Kaminari said, relieved. "And, well, I'm fine too, thanks for asking" he completed, dejectedly.

"Oh. Cool. That's great, bro." The scarlet-eyed boy answered, feeling the atmosphere growing weirder in the room. He didn't knew how to act with him. He didn't knew if he had seen anything suspicious in the showers before and he didn't knew if anyone had told him about Kyoka-san. Or worst, **_what_**. That was the thing about the text too, so it kept growing weirder.

"Actually, bro, that's something I'd like to ask you if I could" The blond straightened. As if searching for the right words, he took a long moment, and turned to his colleague, looking into his eyes.

Kirishima held his breath, waiting for the million dollar question.

"Did you follow Jiro after we fought yesterday? You said to everybody you met her after seeing Recovery girl, but when I asked, she said you never came. Did you set me up yesterday, so the way would be free for you to hit on her?" Denki finally let the words flow, like violent waters overtaking a dam.

"DUDE. NO." Astonished by the hypothesis, Kirishima gestured strongly refusing the blonde's statements. "I never hit on her, and I was really on my way to the infirmary yesterday. I managed to get to the door, but I bumped into Kyoka-san on the way. The Recovery girl wasn't there, she offered to keep me company and I agreed. That's all. I swear I didn't set you up or anything like it"

"So… did you shit yourself?"

"What?!"

"You said you were going to the infirmary too. Did you shit yourself or something? "

"No man, I ... you know." The redhead remembered the conversation they had in the locker room.

"OH! That scary thing with your quirk?"

"Right. I was on the my way and Kyoka-san heard me complain in the hallway about it. And then she told me that kind of thing happened to her, too." Now, to someone so honest, Kirishima Ejiro knew how to lie, after all.

 _But it's only a half lie, right?_

Chin fallen by the discovery, the blonde leaned on the bench behind him. After a brief silence that seemed to last an eternity for both of them, he nodded, and inquired

"That's true?"

"Yes, Bro. 100%"

 _Maybe 75%?_

"She never told me about it."

"It's not an easy thing to talk about." Kirishima answered honestly. "I know that better than anyone." He let out, feeling guilty.

"Sorry for forcing you into this kind of talk, bro. I didn't…"

"It's okay. I Know." The redhead smiled, tired.

After apologizing, Kaminari left the bathroom and Ejiro was finally able to breath decently again. He stretched and walked slowly into the shower, making sure that, this time, it was only he in the room. Only then, he let the tears fall, thick and silent, mingling with the drops of steaming water onto his skin.

And it was only 5 am.


	7. Chapter 7

Bakugo Katsuki always thought he had it all, until he got into UA. Then, his life had become an emotional roller coaster, and every curve left him more on the verge of blasting everything around him in the blink of an eye. And at that moment even a single unanswered message sent bursts of hate through his body. He checked the screen of his cell phone again. Absolutely nothing.

 _-Tsc.-_

He left at his usual time, but unlike usual, he didn't found his redhead neighbor outside. And for the first time, he decided to knock.

"HEY SHITTY HEAD! YOU'RE LATE!"

But he received only overwhelming silence in response. And that was fucking weird. As there was no sign of life, he shrugged, irritated. He pulled the cell phone out of his pocket again, but found nothing. He began to walk grumpily, reviewing in his mind whatever things he might have done to ward off the redhead.

 _-Fuck it.-_

Kirishima had always been transparent as crystal clear water, but in the last few days Bakugo could not figure out what the hell was going on in his mind. He felt a bitter taste in his throat, but he forced himself to swallow it. It came down like a one-ton stone through his gut. He quickened his pace in the hope that once he had sat down, all that whirlwind of things would calm down inside him. It turned out to be wrong, however, as he opened the sliding door. The sensation rose to his mouth as soon as he caught sight of the redhead. He bit his inner cheek. The metallic taste of blood quickly settled into his mouth, mingling with the bitter taste. He felt like throwing up, but instead he sat staring at the floor. What the hell was wrong with him?

Out of the corner of his eye, Kirishima saw him sit visibly disturbed. For a moment he thought about opening his mouth and trying to cheer him up, but he felt immediately out of his right to do so. The weight of the distance between them fell like an anvil on his back. As he felt the tears about to form, Ejiro pretended a yawn, but was caught by the attentive gaze of his friend behind him and soon as a blink of an eye, a message reached his cell phone.

 _\- Is everything okay between you two?_

 _Jiro_

 _Oh, so_ ** _that's_** _Kyoka's number. Less a suspect I guess._

Kirishima grabbed the device and quickly typed

\- _I don't know, things are strange between us._

A few seconds later, the screen lit up with the answer

 _\- You look awful, man. Did you even get to sleep?_

 _\- Actually I got a weird ass text yesterday when you and me were in the common room. I couldn't stop thinking about ever since._

 _\- A text from who? what was it about?_

Kirishima began typing on the contents of the message but was interrupted by the voice of his teacher.

"I believe all students are aware that electronic devices are not allowed during class time. Kirishima-san and Kyoka-san could you two please keep them off until lunchtime?"

"Ye-Yes! Sorry!" The redhead said while putting his phone aside. He straightened himself in the chair staring at the wall behind his teacher to avoid his glaze. Kirishima started wondering how everything escalated that quickly And he drowned so hard into it that he never noticed a very sad Kaminari by his side. But at the bottom of the room, someone did.

 _-By Pikachu's face they're really serious business, huh.-_

Bakugo felt uncomfortable. Was Kirishima so busy texting fucking creepy ears that he couldn't even return a single message? Something inside his stomach shifted, making him uneasy. _If fucking shittyhead gave me the flu I'll kill him with my bare fists._

Hours dragged on until lunch. When the bell finally rang, Denki forced himself to put on his best smile when Sero and Mina called him to get a new bread in the school cafeteria. He turned on his back in reflex, accustomed to Jiro's company, but she had already left the room. How much time had he spent lost in thought?

"Are you looking for Kyoka-san?" Mina said with a smirk. She could smell the jealousy all around him.

"Nah, It was just a reflex haha" Nobody needed to know how much of a crybaby he really was. With the invisible hand of guilt smashing his organs silently, he got up and accompanied his friends, smiling as if nothing had happened. It was like being in the autopilot. Blurs instead of faces passed him as he walked, and Kaminari felt his body respond alone to the people who greeted him on the way.

 _-What a weird sensation. Am I going crazy?-_

Landscapes and sounds seemed more and more distant. Now watching his friends talk as if he were watching a silent movie, the blond gave a shrug. Whatever. It was easier that way.

 **Sorry for the short chapter. I'm still working on how to make more subtle scenario changes. ˜:**


	8. Chapter 8

Kirishima finally managed to lie down, exhausted. He had tried all day to make contact with Jiro in an unsuspected way, without success. Whenever he pulled his phone close to his friends during lunch some leering followed him because of the words of Aizawa-sensei, and the rest of the day was spent in a particularly intense workout. He reached for the device and began to type, wishing with all his heart she could help him with the mystery behind the weird messages he received.

 _\- Hey, sorry for this morning. Can u talk right now?_

Few seconds later, she replied.

 _\- Sure, man. I was just playin' some bass, what happened?_

That was thing he didn't knew about her.

\- _You play the bass? Lol that's dope man!_

 _\- I play the drums too, haha. But I guess u didn't texted me to hear about my musical skills. Focus, dude._

In her bedroom, a smiley Jiro typed in response. She was very proud of her musical skills, for they were so amazing as her hearing ones even though few people knew about them.

 _\- Right, sorry! I was just impressed hehe. So, about the weird text I told you about this morning… I don't know who sent me either, it's from a number I don't know at all. It just says "You don't match. K"_

 _Ps: You should definitely sent me some of your jam l8r. I'm sure with this ears of yours you totally rock :-D_

Jiro laughed, then she narrowed her brows in thought. Was the K for Kaminari? But he weren't with everyone on the hall the day before.

 _\- * You don't match * lol is this a joke or what? Haha, I mean, DUDE. Anw, send me the number and I'll see if it was anyone I know_

Kirishima rummaged through his message box looking for the mysterious text, and once he found, he copied the number and sent it to Jiro. It took her several minutes to respond, so when she did, he jumped startled by the buzz, almost dropping his phone.

 _\- It's no one on my contacts so I asked Uraraka-san but she didn't knew whose was it either. I could ask Mina but I think both of us don't want her snooping around_

The redhead cringed at the thought. That was true.

 _\- You're right, lol. Let me know if u find out something. Over_

The girl grinned in amuse with the end of the text. How old was he? Six? She started typing, and then she stoped for a minute before sending it. Jiro never had a friend like this before, and she was liking it. She pressed sent, giggling.

 _\- Hahaha over? What are we now? UA cops?_

 _Over_

 _\- The crimson squad! Hehehe, jk …Or not ;-D_

 _Over_

Kirishima placed his phone on the bedside table with a smile. It was good to be able to forget for a few minutes all the teenage drama unfolding around him. Jiro was a fun friend, and one he could trust. He remembered then the morning episode with Kaminari, which he had not yet told her.

 _Bzz_

Jiro was about to tease her redhead friend for his fanboy lame name for their fictional squad when she received a second message from him. One not so funny.

 _\- So… this morning I bumped into Kaminari in the showers and he sorta asked about u. He somehow thought we were dating? I actually thought the text I got was his, but u said nothing when I texted u the number so I assumed it wasn't. I never asked tho. I was so shocked at the time I never managed to discover why on earth was he thinking we had anything going on._

She froze. Why was Kaminari confronting people in the bathroom asking about her? She started to type but deleted everything countless times.

 _-Damn it Kirishima!-_

Kirishima was waiting for a reply when somebody knocked on his door. At 8pm he questioned himself who could it be. He stretched, and lazily got up from the bed. He walked to the door, and when he turned the knob, his jaw fell to the floor.

"Took you fucking time shitty head." Bakugo said, impatient. "Are you going to invite in or what?"

The redhead could sense all the blood of his head runnig to his feet, but there was nothing he could do. Bakugo was right there, before him, and he was inviting himself in, so it was not like he had a choice. Confused by the whole situation, he made room for the blonde to pass.

"Sure, sure, sorry bro. I was just not expecting you to drop by." He said, embarrassed.

"I had to, since you can't even reply a text now you're into weird-ears pants." Bakugo said, sitting in his friend bed casually.

"Excuse me WHAT? I'm not- And anyway WHEN did you texted me?" And then it hit him. In the face. Hard. K was for Katsuki Bakugo. The strange message was his, but WHY did Bakugo sent him that? "Dude, the you-don't-match text, it was you? Why on EARTH would you said that to someone EVER?"

"You were bullshitting me. You two." The blonde said, sullen.

"I beg you pardon?" Kirishima was confused as never before. He closed the door and took a seat in the other corner of the bed cautiously.

"Yesterday. You say you were training, but you don't match. Your quirks are incompatible. She can't penetrate your skin or defeat your punches, I knew you were lying right away." He said, piercing the redhead with his eyes.

"Bro. She can literally plug her jacks into rocks, I think you're underestimating her here."

Well, that was true.

"You are **harder**. - Bakugo said, approaching him and sending shivers trough Ejiro's spine - And I know because I can get to blow apart rocks but **I can't get trough you.** " He completed with a hiss.

Kirishima felt all his body go goo, and for the first time in his life he experienced the complete opposite of his quirk. He picked up all the strength he could to undo that mushy sensation and face the scarlet angry eyes before him, trying not to simply jump onto the blonde's neck. He opened his mouth do vocalize some lame excuse, but his phone started to buzz and Jiro's name appeared on screen the second Bakugo put his eyes on it. He let out a sonorous scoff and handled the device to his owner, almost like a dare.

"Pick up already, don't mind me. It would be impolite let the fucking lady waiting" He said, sarcastic.

 _-Like you could say something about being impolite.-_

Kirishima thought making a frown. He took it from Bakugo's hands cursing in silence the incredible bad timing of the situation. Then he pressed the green icon and almost immediately a feminine voice started screaming from the other side.

 _\- WHY THE HELL TOOK YOU SO LONG TO PICK UP YOUR DAMN PHONE KIRISHIMA?_

 _-Dear lord, this situation is totally not helping me know.-_ Kirishima sighted.

\- Yo, sorry. I actually have someone visiting me in my dorm right now - The redhead looked directly to Bakugo - I was distracted.

\- _Shit. -_ The girl lowered her voice - _Is this who I think it is?_

 _-_ Don't worry haha it's only Bakugo, he came to talk about some man stuff, hehe. - Kirishima said, trying to sound joyful.

\- _… Right. Er, I'll call you later about… that other stuff. -_ She said, aware of the possibility of being on the speaker phone. - _Well, bye. -_ Jiro hung up, feeling sorry for putting him in that situation. The girl let the adrenaline rush out of her body, stretching while sending good wishes for her friend in distress.

In Ejiro's room, only silence took place once the phone call was over. Kirishima stood up and replaced his phone on the bedside table and smiled uncomfortably.

"So… about that."

"Listen, I don't give a single fuck if you're dating her or not. Actually, I just want to know why you're fucking avoiding me" Bakugo muttered.

"I'm… I'm not. It's just… - Kirishima went silent. He **was** avoiding Bakugo, but he couldn't exactly share the reason with him. He faced the floor in guilt.

"STOP LYING TO ME SHITTYHEAD - The blonde exploded. - You're acting distant, and even started leaving early to avoid me. Whatever I did, just tell me so I can fucking apologize about it."

 _Huh? Why does he think he should apologize?_ Ejiro asked himself. Bakugo wasn't the most delicate person in the world, but the redhead had grown fond of everything in his way. He always admired the blonde with all his faults and qualities, and at that moment, he realized. He, Ejiro Kirishima, was completely and hopelessly in love with Katsuki Bakugo. He felt his eyes fill with water, driven by guilt, shame, and fear.

"It's not you, it's **me**." He said with a choked voice.

"Wait. Are you breaking up with me like I'm some chick?" Bakugo said in a mixture of amusement and irritation.

Kirishima laughed out loud. Damn, he really liked Katsuki Bakugo. He felt his shoulders relax in acceptance. As much as he felt wrong, at that moment there was nothing he could do.

"I'm just dealing with some stuff of my own and didn't want to bother anyone else with it, sorry. You did nothing wrong, I swear." - He said, getting a pillow and pressing it against himself.

"You don't bother me." - The blonde said almost whispering.

"Excuse me?" - Without fully understanding the blonde's words, the redhead inclined his head in confusion.

"I said you don't fucking bother me! Can you hear me now or are you deaf?!" - Katsuki barked nervously to him.

Kirishima nodded with a tiny smile.

"Great. And, hm, whatever this is, I know you will handle it anyway. You're stubborn as hell." Bakugo let out with a soft voice as he got up and walked to the door. Then he left, leaving a fragile Kirishima on the verge of a mental breakdown.

Ejiro felt his emotional armor fall with the slamming of the door, and dived into the pillow in his hands. He screamed with all his lungs trough the white fabric, pulling the pillowcase against his face to muffle the sound of his agony. Silent tears started running down, suffocating him, but he kept sobbing and pressing his face further into the pillow until it became unbearable. Then he released his fingers slowly, one by one, and closed his eyes. A bittersweet thought passed trough his mind. At least Katsuki Bakugo liked him too, even if it was in a completely different way.

 _-A man in love really does accept any crumbs_ _he can get, huh? What a damn charity case you are, Ejiro.-_

But his bedroom now smelled like Bakugo, and that was enough for him to endure the rest of that night.

 **I'm writing as fast as I can and trying to make it easier to let everything clear. I'm also trying to write longer chapters so please keep reviewing things you would like to improve in this story, please! I'm very thankful for the reviews so far!**

 **Ps: I know Bakugo can break trough Ejiro's quirk but in this case he meant even he couldn't do it at once, but anyway, I'm going to fix this whole in some scene later, so please don't give up on me! hahaha**


	9. Chapter 9

Bakugo closed the door behind him, feeling uncomfortable with something he couldn't describe. One side of him was relieved to know that he had done nothing wrong, but the other felt useless for not knowing how to help. And that feeling. The urge to touch him. It was never easy for him to deal with people, that wasn't news to him. But somehow, with Kirishima things were used to hate closeness, but the redhead's presence never bothered him. And above all, no one had ever awakened in him the desire to comfort anyone. But seeing Kirishima discouraged, pathetically embracing his pillow as if he were a little girl made Bakugo want to hug him and punch him at the same time. And **that** was news to him. He kicked the air in front of him and sighed as the memory of those crimson eyes filled with water appeared in his mind, haunting him like a ghost, twisting his bowels like wet towels. He marched to his room, hands in his pockets, still thinking about what had just blond entered his room, took off his shoes, and opened the windows to feel the night it was the summer, but that night had been hotter than the other days. He started to play with the sweat in his hands, pouring out small blasts, and then gradually lowering them to the level where he could control the heat in his palms. When he was able to soften the heat on his fingers, he began to gently massage his shoulders, letting his mind float with the pleasant sensation. He wondered if he would ever be able to reproduce it in another living thing without hurting it, and immediately his brain filled the gap with the idea of trying on Kirishima. He blushed heavily, shaking his thoughts away. Though it made sense, on account of Kirishima's quirk, Bakugo was not good in matter of intimacy and the thought of sharing it with the redhead made him both uneasy and willing. Anyway, maybe it wasn't such a bad idea to ask him later. After all, the bastard was the one with a girlfriend, and Bakugo didn't want to be left behind. Kirishima must have some nice moves since Bakugo could swear weird ears were all over Pikachu and vice-versa. By the way, where had all **that** begun? He felt like bursting through Kirishima's door to find out, and at the moment the thought crossed his mind, the explosions in his hands suddenly increased without warning, burning his shoulders.

"OUCH! W-WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?" The blonde cursed at the top of his voice for the whole UA to hear.

Worried with his scream, his redhead neighbor opened the window of his own balcony, putting his head out with an inquisitive look.

"Hey man, is everything ok? - Kirishima asked, in a worried tone. Then, he noticed the burns on Bakugo's shoulder and narrowed his brows. - Bro. What the hell just happened?"

"None of your business shittyhead." - Bakugo answered pouting.

The redhead stared at him for a few moments, as if meditating whether to intervene or not. Then an idea occurred to him, and he disappeared saying

"I'll be here in a moment, hold on!"

"MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, I don't fucking needed it!" Bakugo shouted trying to stop him, but Kirishima was already gone.

Less than five minutes later, there he was, knocking at Bakugo's door, with a worried look on his face and an ice pack in his cursed himself as he walked to the door, and once he opened it, he cursed twice before the face of pity that Kirishima made when he saw his shoulder.

"I said I didn't needed your fucking help." Bakugo said with a frown.

"And you say that I'm the stubborn one." Kirishima said, ignoring the blonde and placing the ice pack on the burn marks in Bakugo's shoulder.

"Ouch!" The blonde complained as the ice first touched the surface of his wounds. "I'm not fucking stubborn, I'm just used to it. It's my fucking quirk, after all." He said he said while giving space for Kirishima to pass.

"And yet you decided to try it on yourself? That doesn't seem very smart" The redhead said, sitting joyfully on Bakugo's bed. "Geez man, I always thought about your room being something more manly, but it's simple as fuck."

"Fuck you. And **why** the _fuck_ have you fantasized about my room, shittyhead?"

"You didn't left your cave in our first day in the dorms, but we did a bedroom contest and get to see everyone's room, except yours and Tsuyu's. I always thought yours would be more… _fierce._ " The redhead boy said, smiling.

"Huh? The fuck that even mean? And why do you have these on your room anyway?" Bakugo asked pointing to the ice bags as he sat on the floor.

"Even I have muscular pain every now and then." Kirishima said with a grin. "And in case you didn't noticed, I have a massive punch bag in my room who helps to increase them. Taking care of your body is so important as training it! Serious business bro, if you were thinking about managing your own heat why didn't you used one of UA's dummies? I'm sure they would be very less sore than your shoulders."

"I was trying to make it kinder to human skin." The blast boy said shyly looking the other way.

Kirishima raised a brow.

"Why?" The redhead asked, genuinely curious.

"You know. Like, to make my palms warmer to touch without hurting anyone's skin." The blonde said, blushing "Obviously, I didn't managed to do it."

A dark thought crossed Kirishima's head, as he remembered his embarrassing dream about those hands. He straightened himself, coughed and giggled nervously.

"So you're trying to adapt you quirk to some next level reiki stuff? Y-you should try with a stronger human dummy then, haha." The redhead said, nervously scratching his head.

"So, you're in?" Bakugo asked him with a serious look in his face. " You can still feel how much it's bearable to regular people even when you're hard right? It won't actually hurt you but you can _sense_ it, isn't that so?"

"Well, I mean, yes. I could, but when I brought it up I wasn't actually… talking about me?" Kirishima said in a mix of embarrassment and awe. "But, hm. Sure. Why not?"

"Great, give me your hand." Bakugo demanded.

"Wait" Kirishima came closer to reach Bakugo's hands, his heart racing as he activated his quirk on his entire left arm. "Why exactly are we doing this, please?"

Bakugo grabbed Kirishima's right hand with his own, making a shell and concentrating to create the tiny explosions all over again as he analyzed his partner expression.

"Because eventually I'll start going out with some girl, and I don't want burn the shit out of her, that would be fucked up." The blonde started concentrating the first mini explosions, then looked up to measure the redhead's reaction. "How does it go so far?"

"Yeah, that would be kinda problematic" Kirishima said, trying hard to control his quirk and stay put. "It tickles. It's like pop rocks, but on my skin."

 _-And it's freaking great.-_ He thought, blushing lightly.

"I'll try to make them even so they come in waves. Tell me if it works." Bakugo said, focused in the boy's right hand. He increased the heat then softened it, inadvertently causing chills on the redhead.

"I-it's still too hot. First it felt like opening the hot shower before the cold water blend in. Then the heat went down, but still not enough. Reduce it. And… spread it trough all your fingers. It's nicer if I can feel the entire touch of your phalanges." Ejiro said, blushing hardly.

"Why?" Bakugo asked without drawing his attention away of Kirishima's hand. He raised a brow. "Does it feels good?"

"It feels better if one can feel the whole extension of the touch." Kirishima said with a low voice, now completely red. "Look bro, I'm giving you sincere feedback here but it's going to get weird if you keep asking things like that."

"Ok, ok, whatever." Bakugo said, calmingly obeying his instructions. He raised his eyes. "Now it's better?"

"Yes." Kirishima mumbled, completely hypnotized by Bakugo's touch. He slowly decreased his own quirk, until his right arm was just a regular piece of human flesh.

"How you do it?" Bakugo asked still concentrated in maintain the heat even in his hands. "I mean, when… you know."

"Well, hahaha… I guess my quirk isn't so aggressive as yours. Unless I decide to use in a offensive way, of course, but in a romantic situation I guess would simply not use it.

- _Like now.-_ Kirishima thought tenderly.

Several minutes passed until Bakugo was convinced he was able to manage his quirk into something pleasurable instead of hurtful, so when it happened, both of them were sleepy. The blonde let go of Kirishima's hand once he was satisfied with his job and stretched lazily.

"You got good at it pretty fast. I'm jealous." The redhead said cheerfully.

"Of course, it's me we're talking about" Bakugo said with a smirk. "I had a good training dummy though." He completed trowing a soda to Kirishima with a smile. "Now get outta here."

"How cold of you, using me as a toy then discarding me like this." Kirishima said, trying to sound offended as he got up and walked to the door.

"Fucking go already!" Bakugo said, laughing.

"Right, right. Good night, bro." The redhead said making his way out.

"Night." The blast boy said with a tiny smile.

Then Kirishima left, closing the door behind him and thinking;

- _What on earth just happened?-_


	10. Chapter 10

Kyoka Jiro has never been the nervous type who acts without thinking, so when she found herself wandering in circles around her room while waiting for a sign from Kirishima, she knew something on her had definitely changed. More than an hour had passed since her call and now she was anxious for news about both the phone incident and the argument Kirishima had with Denki that morning. She lay down on the bed and started thinking about how she had parachuted into that drama less than a week ago and was already sunk down to her neck. She sighed heavily, grabbed her headphones and scoured her phone for her favorite pop-punk playlist. Once she found it, Jiro pressed the play, and closed her eyes letting the music flow through her body. She could feel every chord, every pause, every breath, reverberate through her. She remembered the first time she felt like this when she first saw her mother playing. And then, when she herself had learned to play her first song on the guitar as a child. Sensory waves began to flow, louder and stronger, echoing like a song through her bones, filling her mind with memories of easier times and her mouth with unpretentious laughter. But it was when the drums came in, that Jiro felt her heart skip a beat, reminding her the first time she'd really felt something rocking her inner structures, something beyond music. The first time she felt something invade her so intensely, suddenly, and without asking for permission. The first time she joined forces with Denki, she thought that feeling was just remnants of electricity interacting with her quirk. It was like having a shadow but within her own skin. Then, it evolved to a sort of extracorporeal communication where their quirks seemed to talk to each other like old best friends and somehow pulled them together. In no time, Denki learned how to talk with Jiro through his earphones using his quirk, and scared the shit out of her the first time he did it. She laughed remembering how she was inadvertently playing the bass with her headphones, when she heard the boy's voice in her mind, and let herself sink into that memory.

— _"_ _HEY!" Kyoka heard a familiar voice in her head, almost like it was behind her. She jumped in surprise, almost dropping her bass on the floor with the fright._

 _"_ ** _Kaminari?!_** _What the hell?!" She let out, looking across the room and making sure he wasn't there._

 _"_ _YAY, IT WORKED! I was hearing you but I wasn't sure if you would hear me!" The boy was delirious with joy._

 _"_ _Dude, WHY am I hearing you?" Jiro inquired, totally confused. Was he doing that trough her headphones? She remembered he could channel electricity trough some gadget, but at the time he tried it out, it was still very weak._

 _"_ _I'm trying my earpiece now Hatsume-san made some improvements on it. I guess it works since I'm in my room and I'm listening to you without any interference and you live in a room full of instruments and amplifiers."_

 _"So you only chose me because you wanted to test how much electrical interference your toy would take?" Jiro asked with a sarcastic tone._

 _"_ _Nah, I just wanted to talk to you, hehe. Killer skills with the bass, by the way. Keep going, you rock." Denki said, ending the conversation._

 _She smiled. And that was the moment she knew the cause of the bristly hairs on her arms when they were near was not static._ —

Something moved heavily inside her. An uncomfortable feeling, as if her stomach were full of stones. She wanted to talk to him, reach him. She missed him, but after what Kirishima had told her, things were way too strange. Kyoka opened her eyes and picked up her phone to change the music, but then saw a text she missed from Kirishima during her trance. - _Finally!-_

 _\- Sorry for the delay, the weird thing just happened. (_ ；一 ___ 一 _) Let me know if ur still up!_

 _Over_

She typed a short response, trying to lighten the mood.

 _\- So we're still doing the "over" thing? Lol_

 _that's ok by me. Call me when u see this_

 _Over_

Half a minute later, her phone rang. She unplugged her headphones from the device and replaced them with her left jack, but didn't even had the time to start talking, because when she pressed the green icon, Kirishima's voice burst in.

" _YOU WILL_ ** _NOT BELIEVE_** _WHEN I TELL YOU EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED TONIGHT!_ "

She frowned at the volume of the boy's voice.

"Easy, boy. I have great hearing, remember?"

Ejiro lowered his tone on the other side of the line in solidarity with his friend.

" _My bad. Did I hurt your ears?"_

 _"_ It's ok, man, go on."

" _Right. So… hm, are you comfortable? Because this will be long._ " Ejiro said leaning on his pillow at the other side of the line.

"I'm all ears."

And then the crimson-eyed boy began to talk, and talk, and talk. Half an hour passed, and when he finally finished, she was speechless.

" _Are you still with me?_ " Kirishima asked, giggling nervously.

"Yes, I'm just… I don't know what to say." Jiro said, staring at the walls, stunned.

" _Are you going to talk to Kaminari?_ " He softened his voice, remembering he wasn't the only one in the middle of something complicated.

"I don't know **how**." She whispered. "This space between us where we're neither lovers or friends keeps growing like weed. I'm still mad at his face, but I miss him."

Every word of her hit Ejiro like a hammer in the chest. He himself was in that same situation, even though things were apparently fine now. A few seconds of silence followed before he could say something.

" _Sorry, I'm the one who doesn't know what to say now._ "

"Forget about it, dude. How about you and blast boy? Did you make any progress today?"

" _Well, we're cool now, I guess. Everything is… nice._ " He let out, lowering his voice at the end.

"Doesn't sound nice to me. Spit it out, what bothers you, young Padawan?" Jiro asked worried about the boy's tone.

Kirishima sighed.

" _I like him, Kyoka. I really do. Things have finally gone back to the way they were before, and here I am, complaining. Crazy, right? The thing is, I don't want them to be the same anymore. Because you see, I'm not the same myself. And every time he looks at me and sees a friend, it kills me twice. The first, because I can no longer see him only as a friend, and the second because I want him to see me as something more than that._ "

"This is… wow. Have you ever considered composing romantic ballads?" She joked, trying to conceal her amazement at his words.

" _I'm serious! It's not easy for me, admit that I like another guy. This is the first time I say it out loud._ "

"I know. I was just teasing you, dude." Jiro laughed in amusement. He was so damn transparent. "I'm happy for you, honestly. Thank you for trusting me to the point of telling me something so important."

She heard him smile at the other side of the line, and unconsciously, she smiled too.

"Now, Kirishima, could you PLEASE let me get some sleep to absorb all this information? I'm not used to so much happening at the same time and I could use some rest right now."

" _Was it too much? I'm sorry._ " The redhead said laughing nervously.

"Don't be" She smiled. "Over."

A delicious laugh echoed low on the other side.

" _Over._ "


	11. Chapter 11

Waking up the next morning, Ejiro felt as light as a feather. He rolled across the bed lazily, enjoying the sunlight dancing on his back and wrapping him like a caress. He remembered the warmth of Bakugo's hands - the heat he had longed for since the first time he felt it - and smiled in delight. The conversation he'd had with Jiro had restored his long-lost tranquility. Once he found himself fully awake, the boy got up from the bed excitedly and went to the bathroom to wash his face. Like a miracle, the bags in his once swollen eyes had disappeared in a simple night of sleep. He smiled widely -for the first time in a long time, without pretending- and something inside him told him that he was not alone anymore.

He gathered his things together and headed toward the bathroom, humming happily. His old self was back. As soon as he left his room, he spotted the blond locks of Bakugo a few steps ahead, but something in his walk seemed odd. Kirishima marched toward the boy, but when his hand reached the blond's shoulders to greet him, Bakugo jumped, visibly shaken. The bags that had disappeared from the redhead's eyes like magic reappeared, magnanimous, on his neighbor's pale face.

"The fuck!? Have you ever heard about calling people before putting your paws on them?" Bakugo said, visibly disturbed by the redhead's sudden touch. In response to his rudeness, Kirishima took a step back, still shocked by the tired look of the blonde.

"Wow. Sorry. Is everything alright with you, man? - The redhead said, staring at the boy's weary face – "Bro... did you managed to get any sleep at all?"

Bakugo frowned, trying to shake away a visibly unpleasant thought. In the face of the redhead's searching glance, he lowered his countenance and merely replied, "It's all fucking perfect. I slept like a damn angel."

Kirishima raised an eyebrow and carefully added "Well, it's not what it looks like."

The blonde stopped walking and stared at the redhead boy with a terrifying look. "Not everything is as it seems, now take care of your own damn life or I'll leave you talking to yourself."

Kirishima gulped, then let a sigh and shrugged. He was already used to the boy's closed manner, but that didn't make him less worried. "If you say so. But you know, I'm here to listen if you want me to."

"Thank you very fucking much." Bakugo said, staring into the nothingness and resuming his walk in silence.

Both of them continued to walk until they made it to the common bathroom. Kirishima chose the left corner shower and waved goodbye to his colleague. As he started to walk, Bakugo felt the weight of the world leaving his back. The truth was, the blonde boy didn't sleep a single hour, for the first minutes of his sleep were haunted by the image of the redhead. In fact, his words. Somehow his brain managed to turn the redhead's instructions into some asmr shit during Bakugo's dreams, and it had awakened thousands of different sensations in him, which he had not liked at all. He felt an erection coming with the memory of the night before and cursed his pubertal hormones. Thank God he was still in tow.

-I need to get a fucking girlfriend soon-

He thought as he stepped into the shower, dropping the towel around his waist. "Hello, my little friend.", he said as he stared at the happy phallus between his legs. "Time to fucking leave."  
The blonde opened the cold water, entering at once under the icy drops. The contrast of the chilled temperature of morning water against the boy's always warm skin filled him with chills. He clenched his teeth. One thing about Katsuki Bakugo is that he never felt cold. And for this reason, on the rare occasions when he felt it, he hated it. His always warm body was already accustomed to the cold showers earlier in the day, but his crotch, not so much. Once his whole body got used to the temperature, he managed to finally relax a bit. He went on with his daily cleansing ritual until he had the feeling that he had swept away every trace of Kirishima in him. He sighed. When did his mind decide it was ok to fucking fantasize with the boy next door? "Fuck it." He said, closing the water and leaving the shower. It was probably the consequence of being locked with a bunch of dudes. He could flirt with his own fucking pillow and would be the same testosterone talking. He finished dressing and unconsciously looked around for the redhead, but cursed himself mentally when he found him. Kirishima was on his back, naked from the waist up, and once the blonde's eyes fixed on the scene, they couldn't help but stare at him. Bakugo felt his face heating, and in a mix of shame and despair, he shouted: "Do you intend to take all day, Princess?"

Ejiro jumped startled by the boy's shout. He hadn't noticed Bakugo's presence until he heard his voice. "Sorry, I didn't know you were waiting for me. I'll hurry."

"You better." Bakugo said, looking away.

"Sure, sure" The redhead replied calmly. There came a point in the boy's life when he had grown accustomed to the blonde's harsh responses. More than that, Kirishima had grown fond of Bakugo's rude way. Something told him that it was just a mask to disguise his clumsiness with people. And the fact is that Ejiro found it cute. He smiled, thinking to himself that in spite of everything Bakugo had looked for him and waited (in his impatient way) for them to go together. Ejiro gave his uniform tie a knot and joined the irritated blonde. As they began to walk, the redhead noticed the unspoke tension in the air. Something was wrong. He decided to ask, even knowing that talking about feelings with Bakugo was similar to talking to a rock.

"Hey, bro. Is everything ok?"

"The only thing wrong is you and your slow ass, shittyhead." Bakugo said bluntly.

Ejiro sighed to himself. Bakugo was impossible to reach sometimes.

"If you say so." The red-haired boy said, surrendering.

The rest of the way to the classroom remained quiet and heavy. When they finally arrived, Bakugo sat in his chair with an enigmatic face while Ejiro decided to ignore any rumors around he and Jiro and went straight to her.

"Good Morning!" He said with his usual grin, but something in his tone sounded sad. And with ears like hers, Kyoka noticed in no time.

"Kirishima, hey…" she started, then looked him in the eyes as if to say ' _what's wrong, man_?'

"About yesterday… thank you." The boy answered, catching her gaze but choosing to ignore it.

"You're welcome." She said, still staring stubbornly at him. "There's nothing you want to tell me?"

Ejiro smiled. Just a few days and Jiro knew him like the palm of her hands. Was he that transparent?

"Only a billion things." he said laughing cheerfully.

Kyoka had the impression he wanted to say more, but both the environment and their time weren't cooperating. She felt the curious gaze of basically all the classroom around them, but one, in particular, made her feel uncomfortable. With all the Kirishima drama the night before, she completely forgot about the Kaminari situation. For a split second, it was like Kaminari Denki entered her soul, just looking at her with that sad puppy eyes. Eyes that she didn't want to face. She shifted her gaze, and in the corner of the room, saw a shadow coming. "Aizawa-sensei" she let out in a whisper.

"This is my cue," Ejiro said, walking to his chair "thanks again.".

"Sure." She smiled, ignoring Denki's sad look still fixated on her.

- _It's going to be a long, long day._ -


	12. Chapter 12

The moment Denki crossed eyes with Jiro, sparks flew, literally, trough his body.

The same magnetic feel they used to share, it was still there. It was definitely there.

When Kirishima approached her desk that morning, all the numbness Kaminari was into was destroyed by the feeling of deep loss. The boy knew his friend wasn't lying about his intentions (Kirishima was too pure for that), but the connection between them, **that** crushed Denki's heart like a motherfucker. It took MONTHS for him to establish that level of intimacy with Jiro, but Kirishima was able to do it in a couple of days. _-Please, please don't look away. Please, just curse me or scream with me, I don't care. Just… do something.-_ Kaminari prayed. But Jiro stared at the wall in front of them, intentionally avoiding Denki's eyes, and he felt defeated. He stared at the chalkboard where Aizawa-sensei was writing something in English, well, at least something he wasn't so bad at. He tried to pay attention to Eraserhead's words, but his gaze slowly drifted to the redhead next to him. Kirishima looked so carefree, so relaxed and different of what he used to in the last weeks. It was obviously her. No punch intended, Jiro was a good listener. She was also sensible and gave good advice. There she was, again, dancing into Denki's mind. And she was smiling. Involuntarily, Kaminari smiled too. A sad smile, though. A nostalgic smile.

 _-I want you to smile like this at me too. Even though I'm a loser, I want to see you smiling for me again.-_

Denki grabbed his pencil and started to write compulsively. He wasn't good with words, but he was slightly better at writing. And he was willing to put every word his heart said in that letter. That was his redemption.

When the lunch sign rang and Jiro left her chair, Denki knew it was time. He rose and reuniting all his courage, called her name.

"Jiro." He said, nervous. "Please. Stay."

Jiro froze. She wasn't ready for that type of confrontation, especially inside the classroom. The rest of the students felt the atmosphere and started to leave the room the most discrete way they could.

"Sooo, we're… going ahead and you can catch us later, Kyoka-chan!" Mina said, rapidly escorting everybody out doing "shoo, shoo" signs with her hands.

Jiro threw a desperate look to Kirishima, but he shrugged and left the room with an apologizing look in his eyes. - _Sorry, but I really think you two should talk right now. Good luck, Kyoka!-_

- _Traitor-_ She thought. But they were right. That was something that needed a closure.

"Spit it out." Jiro said when they were finally alone.

"Listen, I'm not good with words. And since all that thing…" Denki started

"By that thing, you mean the day when you and Mineta plotted stealing girl's underwear." Jiro cut to the chase.

"Yes. That. Since that day, I've never been able to tell you how I feel." He said, embarrassed. Man, she was tough.

"Pathetic?" She scoffed.

- _Ouch.-_

"Yes. And sorry. And lonely." He said, staring into her flaming angry eyes.

"Well, you should." Jiro said, blushing. Damn it, why does she have to feel so embarrassed before that little brat. He was only apologizing, but something inside her shifted when he said he was lonely. Cause deep inside, she knew she has been feeling lonely too. Her friendship with Kirishima helped a lot, but it wasn't the same, and she knew it. Because with Kaminari has always been something **more.**

"I know. And I suck at apologizing, which is why I wrote you this letter. I suck less writing, I guess." He said, facing the floor in deep shame and holding out the tiny piece of paper with his words.

That pissed off Jiro in ways she didn't know she could be. There he was, after making a fuss and emptying the classroom, staring at the floor without even looking into her eyes, cowardly holding a piece of paper toward her. She felt her blood rising to her face, and all of her beloved patience flushed down the toilet.

"No." She simply said. "I don't want it."

"What?" Kaminari lifts his gaze, meeting hers. She was on the verge of crying, and see it was like a punch in his face. "Jiro…?"

"I don't want lame excuses and sugar-coated words. I want to know why. Why are we both here now? And I want to hear it from your mouth. Now! You have three whole minutes." Kyoka said, completely flustered.

Denki looked into her dark purple eyes, now enormous because of her commotion. He gulped. "Can I at least read it?" He asked, intimidated.

"No. And now you have two minutes." She said bluntly while avoiding his gaze. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and opened them again, directly looking at him. "Now, go."

"Fuck, ok." He said, looking at the useless piece of paper in his hands. He crumpled the sheet of paper as hard as he could and threw it away. "Look, I'm sorry for what I did. And I'm sorry I screwed up our friendship."

"Big time" She let out.

"Yes, big time. I know. And for that, I'm sorry. And for being a complete dick about it. I'm sorry it took me this long to reach you. I know you should've been hurt about it, and I should've been able to have the nerve to tell you this before. But I didn't. And I'm sorry for it. I'm also sorry you can't trust me anymore. But most of all, I'm sorry I lost my best friend. And if you want me to say what hurts the most about it, it's that I miss you. I miss you scoffing me. I miss you laughing at and with me. I want to have it all back but I don't know how and I agree with you, I don't deserve it. But I can't help to miss it all. I want to see you smile again. The same way we used to. Today, when I saw you with Kirishima, when I looked at him… that punched me right in the stomach.

"You are diverting the subject" She said, frowning. The truth is, she knew it. And when Kaminari brought Kirishima's name into the conversation, she felt the urge to scream to him to just. Stop. Being. So. Stupid. But then, he carried on.

"I know, just… hear me out, ok? I still have one minute." He sighed. "About Kirishima… when I looked to his face, I noticed it. The guy was a mess for weeks, you know? But since you two bumped into each other, dude's like a new person. Cause that's the effect you cause on people, Jiro. That's the effect you cause on me."

"I'm not a dopamine injection, Kaminari." Kyoka whispered.

Kaminari approached her. Their eyes met, and once again, the magnetic feeling ran through their bodies. He smiled, as he used to every time it happened. For a moment, it was like the universe had only the two of them, and once her shattered gaze was captured by his, he said:

"You are to me."

The bell rang signaling a new round of lessons but the sound was muffled by the silent wall between them crumbling.


	13. Chapter 13

**First of all, sorry for my huge delay writing and publishing the following chapters. I've been super busy with my tests, but they're over now and I can again concentrate on writing some more chapters for you guys. That said, I found out that my story was somehow illegible, to the point that one of my readers had to skip the last chapter. I'm working on it, and I'm going to try to make the next chapters cleaner so that everyone can have a good experience reading them, regardless of the device.**

Kirishima started to regret letting those two alone in the same room. Most of him firmly believed everything was going to be just fine, and that a good conversation was all they needed to get along again. God knows Jiro missed Kaminari, and so did he. But a tiny bit in Ejiro's mind was worried about what could happen. He poked his pudding with a fork, but no hunger came at him. He sighed, and the gesture didn't go unnoticed.

"Stop sighing like a girl for fuck's sake. She's definitely into you, shittyhead." Bakugou let out, irritated.

"I'm not worried about it, and she's not, believe me," Ejiro said, facing the blonde. "I'm just wondering if it was a good idea to leave them alone. I don't want her to get mad at me."

"What's so special about weird-ears anyway?" – Bakugo scoffed – "You and Pikachu keep seeking her like fucking puppies, and she's not even that pretty. Anyway, if I were you I wouldn't be so worried, she seemed head over heels for you this morning."

Kirishima's eyes widened. Bakugo had a habit of insulting people, but he'd never heard him speak like that before.

"Wow. Where did that come from?" The redhead said, bothered by Bakugo's words.  
The blond just let out a "Tsch" and looked away.

Ejiro felt his blood boil. That was ridiculous. He clenched his fists, gathering strength to say all the things that were stuck in his chest. He approached the blonde, looking straight into his eyes.

"Listen, bro, I'm not into Jiro, and she's definitely not into me. We're friends. And we became such good friends, because she listens to me, something you apparently can't do properly. Because if you did, you would know that there is nothing between me and her, which I have told you a thousand times by now. You're jealous because I've been giving her attention, I get it. But that doesn't give you the right to offend someone I care about only because you're butthurt." Ejiro said, raising his voice in the last sentence and attracting everyone's eyes to him.

Bakugo began to stammer an answer, but the firm look in Kirishima's eyes dissuaded him, so instead of raging against the boy like he usually would, the blonde faced the floor and mumbled  
"Fine. I'm sorry."

Ejiro raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Had he heard right?  
"Did you just…?"

"YEAH, I SAID I'M FUCKING SORRY. AND I'M NOT. FUCKING. JEALOUS. The thing is pink freak said she saw you two all lovey-dovey onto each other the other day and I just assumed it was true. I was bothered only because I thought you were hiding it from me, ok?"

That was **part** of the true, Katsuki thought. But whatever, Kirishima didn't need to know the full version of it.

The redhead opened up his mouth to answer, but the class bell rang and Bakugo immediately turned his back to him and vanished, as fast as the wind. Kirishima blinked, astonished at everything that had just happened, questioning himself about how long had those feelings been trapped inside him. The crowd of students began to drift apart, waking him up from his trance of thoughts and reminding him that he should rush back to the classroom. He hastened the pace, and once there, he searched worried for the couple he'd left earlier. As soon as he laid his eyes on them, however, he instantly smiled.  
The atmosphere seemed a thousand times lighter between them, and as Jiro reached his gaze, she made a "thank you" gesture by moving her lips in silence. "You're welcome" he answered, and she smiled from the distance. Well, at least someone made amends today, he thought, instantly moving his gaze to Bakugo's chair. The blonde was, as usual, starring at the outside, grumpy and thoughtful. Ejiro wondered if he should say sorry, after all, he'd never been so rude to someone in UA before, especially not to Bakugo.  
He turned his eyes back to his desk and breathed for a moment. He wasn't going to be able to solve anything in such a short space of time. Later, he would do it. Now, he was going to freaking concentrate on studying properly for the first time in days. And so he did.

The blast boy, however, had no luck in that matter. Every time he tried to concentrate, flashbacks of Kirishima's speech jumped in his mind. And there were the dreams of the night before, the shameful dreams he had tried to suppress all day long, swimming by his thoughts, leaving him on the verge of a mental collapse.  
The thing here is, Katsuki Bakugo wasn't a homophobe, but he never had experienced any feelings towards men before. Being fair, he had never experienced anything like that about anyone before. He wasn't a very imaginative young boy, so when the time came and he started to feel the urges of his puberty, all he did was touch himself as all boys do, nothing fancy, nothing funny. But after Kirishima's visit, he had the whole package. Visuals, sounds, even the smell, and the feel of Ejiro's rough skin against his own. He closed his eyes in a desperate attempt of deleting those images, but right after he did it, his gaze went straight to the red-haired boy that was deeply focused on the board, biting the back of his pencil innocently. Katsuki felt a commotion inside him. "Fuck" he said, noticing a volume inside his pants starting to rise.

"Bakugo. Is everything okay?"  
Aizawa sensei asked, because apparently not only his eyes were powerful, but also his fucking ears. The blonde squeezed himself to the side and nodded.  
That shit was going to pass, come hell or high water.

When the sunset came, and the bells announcing the end of the day rang, Kastuki vanished like a shadow, leaving a very uneasy Kirishima behind. As Sero, Mina, and Kaminari were happily chatting on their way to the door, Jiro let them go ahead and approached Ejiro with a sad smile.  
"Wanna talk?" she asked shyly.  
"Yup. Same bat-time, same bat-channel?" he answered, forcing himself to smile too.  
"Sure." She said before waving him goodbye.

That day, the walk to the dorms seemed to Ejiro so much longer than the usual, even with an energic Kaminari babbling all the time by his side. So, once Ejiro made it to his room, he asked himself if he should knock on Bakugo's door and apologize, but as much as he wanted, he could not muster the courage to do so. Instead, he jumped on his bed, exhausted. The boy faced the ceiling and let his mind space out as he thought about how fast things were changing. Was that bad? Not necessarily, he thought. He was beginning to dig into that when he felt his cell phone buzzing inside his pockets. He unlocked the screen, and Jiro's name popped.

\- _I'm going to be a little late today. Sorry, laundry day. /;  
Over_

He laughed at the end of the message. She didn't forget it.

\- _That's ok, everyone has those.  
Over 8D_

Once he sent his response, he noticed another message besides Jiro's. When he read Bakugo's name, Ejiro held his breath waiting to find a wall text with all sort of curses. However, the content of the text was simple.

\- _Are you busy now? I want to try my quirk again._


	14. Chapter 14

Kirishima stared at the screen of his cell phone in astonishment. He read and reread the message several times before he could fully comprehend the meaning of those simple words. He definitely could not understand Bakugo. When everything between them seemed to have reached the weirdest poise, the boy decided to send a message like that. The redhead sighed heavily. He didn't know what to do. He thought about sending a text to Jiro asking for a light, but he felt that would be somehow wrong. He began to run a hand through his hair nervously trying to work out an answer, but nothing came up. Finally, Kirishima decided to simply leave the room and knock on Bakugo's door. He could work on something from there.

"It's okay," he told himself. "You've done this before. There's no way it's going to get weirder."  
Little did he know how wrong he was.

Bakugo was angrily staring at his phone, wondering why Ejiro didn't fucking answered him yet. He wasn't training, for Bakugo didn't hear any action on the punchbag through his walls, and he was definitely in his room since he'd heard the redhead entering his room. It had taken the world for him to be able to write those eleven words, and the thought of Kirishima ignoring them punched him right into his pride. But then, out of the blue, a knock sounded at his door. His heart, which before seemed like the size of a nut, started to feel too big to his chest, hammering non-stop inside him.  
"Who is it?" he asked, besides being damn sure of the answer.  
"It's me, bro! Kirishima!" The voice behind his door replied.

 _Shit_ , Katsuki thought. _He really came_.  
The blonde jumped out his bed and ran to the door, trying to look as chill as possible.

"Took you long enough, shittyhead." The blonde said, opening the door.

"Sorry, I was asleep." Kirishima lied. Wasn't his way doing so, but he found no greater excuse to give Bakugo, and he knew the boy would be pissed if he just let out the truth. He sat on Bakugo's bed, uncertain of what to add to the whole situation, so he decided to cut to the chase and try to make it less awkward. "So. You said you want to train your quirk again. Same of last time or do you want me to harden my arm a little less?"

Bakugo stopped for a moment. He'd completely forgotten that he'd called Ejiro under the excuse of training together. It was a good question of his, though. He decided to agree with the redhead.  
"Yes, let's start this way." Bakugo replied softly.

"Okay, let's do this." Ejiro said, hardening his right arm, less than he usually did. Bakugo sat on his side and started to stretch his hand, focusing on letting the heat flow evenly through it. Somehow, while doing it, his face relaxed, and Ejiro caught himself thinking about how pretty the blonde actually was. The redhead felt his face burns, but fortunately for him, Bakugo was too concentrated on his right hand. He averted his gaze as the blonde opened and closed his hands, and when Katsuki finally touched his arm, he felt a chill down his spine even with his quirk on.

"Too much?" Bakugo asked, raising his eyes to Kirishima's face.

"No." He replied, shyly. "I was just caught by surprise"

The blonde smirked. "Was it that good?"

Ejiro was disarmed. He had no way out but to tell the truth, which he did in a low whisper.  
"Well, yes."

Bakugo stared at him for a moment. Then he silently resumed his routine of raising and descending his fingers through Ejiro's arm, quietly increasing or lowering the heat in his hands. Unconsciously, Ejiro began to diminish the intensity of his own protection, letting his arm return completely to normal to feel completely the blonde's caress. Noticing the gesture, Katsuki started to increase his own heat in his hands.

"Am I burning you?" He asked gently.

"No." Ejiro said, completely mesmerized by the moment. "It's perfect."

"Good."

There came a moment when they had both grown accustomed to each other's touch and presence. At that moment, Bakugo commanded:

"Take off your shirt."

The blonde's sudden request woke up Ejiro from his trance.  
"What?"

"Your shirt. Take it off. I want to try something." Katsuki calmly answered.

Kirishima felt a cloud of butterflies dancing in his stomach, but the firm look into the blonde's eyes compelled him and after a brief pause he found himself unbuttoning his shirt awkwardly. Once without the garment, Ejiro folded it calmly and placed it next to him. "Now what?" He asked, embarrassed for being half naked in front of Katsuki.  
"Turn around." The blonde replied in a low voice. Though he was used to seeing Kirishima in his hero costume, which was pretty revealing, Katsuki wasn't used to see him from the waist up. The view of his body reminded him of their meeting that morning, and he was grateful that Kirishima had promptly turned his back at his command because Bakugo could feel his blood boiling in his face. He stared silently at the redhead's back for a moment, then started to approach his neck with his hands, carefully tracing its surroundings, and always avoiding actual touch. Though he was trying to be steady, Ejiro started to tremble at the boy's touch, and Katsuki started to be amused by it. He tried touching the redhead's neck with his middle finger, and it was as if he had unloaded an electric current all over the boy's spine.  
He smirked sadistically.  
Every time Kirishima straighten himself, Bakugo increased the heat on his hands. And every time he did it, Ejiro felt an uncomfortable pressure between his legs that he couldn't control. By the time he felt he couldn't handle it anymore, his quirk turned on, full body at the same time, startling the blonde.

"Thank god" Ejiro whispered in relief, but his friend wasn't so happy about it as he was.

"The fuck!? Why **_the fuck_** did you do that?"

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." He said, embarrassed. "It just happens sometimes. Ask Kaminari."

The blonde raised a brow.

"He saw me at the shower doing it one time" The redhead started to explain "It just happens when I feel… I don't know, threatened." That moment, Ejiro felt the weight of what he just said. He opened his mouth to correct it, but it was too late.

"So what? Are you fucking threatened by me? What am I? A fucking villain?" Bakugo shouted at him

"No." He answered nervously "I-I'm just…"

"Just what? AFRAID? DO I SCARE YOU?" The blonde desperately asked.

"Listen, I'm just not used to…" The redhead was trying to reply when Bakugo voice exploded at him.

"BULLSHIT. You're always hanging around hugging everybody, you don't get to say you're not used to human contact. Answer me. Are you afraid of me? Do. I. scare, you?"

Ejiro took a deep breath and looked Bakugo in the eyes.

"No. I'm not afraid of you, or else I wouldn't be here."

"So WHAT?" Bakugo screamed, hurt and anger in his eyes.

"This." Ejiro said, placing the boy's hand on his chest. "Feel it."

Katsuki stared at him with a confused look. Under the redhead's chest, he could feel his heart pounding like a motherfucker. When he finally mustered the courage to stare Kirishima in the eyes, the boy's gaze was serious and determined. It took him a moment to understand it, but when he finally did, something inside him shifted. Without thinking, he pressed Ejiro's body against the wall with his own. Bakugo looked into his eyes again, expecting to see some kind of fear, but instead, the redhead kept staring at him with the same expression he had before. That was too much. He started to leave, but Kirishima's hand pulled him back.

"Please." Ejiro said in a whisper, and Katsuki felt his whole world fall apart.

Sudden like a wildfire, it was like every particle of his body exploded. He pressed his lips to Ejiro's in a desperate kiss that felt like fireworks, but not like every sugar-coated story he heard before. It was like an arson, and he was loving it. He sensed the redhead grasping for air, but he wasn't satisfied yet, so he let the boy breathe for a split second, then slid his tongue into his mouth furiously. Kirishima moaned, aroused by the sensation of Katsuki's heat inside him. It was something he never felt before, even in his wildest dreams, it was visceral. He grabbed Bakugo's head with his hand, trying to straighten himself, but the blonde pressed his body even tighter against him, making Ejiro moan louder.

"Shut up." Katsuki said between his teeth while descending to the boy's neck.

"It's not easy when you do this" The redhead whispered nervously. Ignoring his despair, Katsuki laughed while kissing his neck.

"Endure it." He said with a hoarse voice that made Ejiro go crazy.

"I'll try." The redhead said biting his lip to avoid another moan when Bakugo sank teeth in his jugular. God, it was like he knew by heart every soft spot in Ejiro's body.

"Good boy" Katsuki said, suddenly throwing him on the mattress, hands high and immobilized by the blonde's own hands over his head. The redhead's eyes widened by the gesture, and that made Katsuki open a grim from ear to ear. He savored the moment like a hunter who finally gets its prey, absorbing every bit of his privileged view with lust.  
"I'm going to take this experiment to a new level for both of us."

Kirishima didn't had the time to ask him what he meant, for soon he felt the boy's free hand reach his torso like embers on fire. He twisted in a mixture of pain and pleasure, while Katsuki played around with his hand, alternating between fiery sparks and warm waves of heat. Ejiro's mind left his body, all senses melting into one big frenzy. He wanted to touch Bakugo so bad, but the boy kept his hands locked and that made him even more excited. The whole sadistic torture the blonde put him through, he never thought he would enjoy it so much. In his fantasies, their bodies were always glued to each other, but somehow the distance between them made the redhead more and more turned on, his pants getting smaller against the pressure inside them.

"Bakugo…" He called in a weak voice trying to ask the blonde to release him.

"What?" He simply asked, smirking while continuously teasing him.

"My pants…" He begged while trying to look aside, embarrassed to the bone. "Please."

The blonde looked down and immediately knew what Ejiro was asking for. However, he was not done playing with him yet, and instead of releasing it, he placed his legs between the boy's and started to tease him even more.  
"What, that?" Kastuki asked, approaching his mouth to Kirishima's ear and rubbing himself against the volume in his pants. "Not yet." He said with a hoarse, almost inhuman voice. Kirishima trembled. He tried to get out of the boy's grip, but Bakugo tightened it up. As a punishment, the blonde lowered his hands through the redhead's torso and began to caress the sides of his waist, bringing him closer while increasing the speed of his legs. Tears began to form in the corners of Ejiro's eyes, who was gasping for air while trying to not scream in pleasure.

"Bakugo…" He let out in supplication.

"Beg for it." Bakugo said, getting closer to him. "And look at me while you're doing it. I want to see your face begging for it."

"Please." Ejiro let out weakly in a lint of voice. "I'm begging you."

Bakugo smiled, and without a sound, raised his hands to Kirishima's pants. The moment he took them off, Ejiro sighed deeply like his life just passed through his eyes. The blonde laughed, and all the feeling of power he had melted into a sudden urge to kiss the redhead, and so he did, this time slowly and deeply, until he was the one who needed to get rid of his own clothes.

As the blonde undressed, Ejiro stared shyly at the body he had wanted so badly in the past few weeks. He felt his cheeks burn as his eyes wandered around the boy's waist.

"Like what you see?" Katsuki asked in a playful tone.

"Yes." Ejiro said with a shy nod.

"Shut up." The blonde said, blushing. His fiery nature got quickly used to the idea of having sex with Kirishima, but he was still uneasy around romantic stuff. He pulled him to the mattress again, but this time, the redhead didn't let him lock his fists.

"I want to feel you too." He said caressing his cheeks, and Bakugo melted.

"Fine. But on my terms." Katsuki whispered while he slid his tongue into Ejiro's mouth again.


End file.
